Consider the cultural divide between The Ghost In The Invisible Bikini (released April 1966) and The Wild Angels (July of the same year). A weakened Production Code was being dismantled in favor of an eventual ratings system. Nicholson and Arkoff saw all of this coming and overhauled their schedule to meet it. The rubble left behind included beach movies, strongman epics, Corman/Poe thrillers — all those beloved staples we’d associated with AIP would be replaced with bikers, protesters, retro-gangsters spun off Bonnie and Clyde — even the posters got ugly…

The Wild Angels was a smash hit of the sort they’d never had before. $4.290 million in domestic rentals was more than twice the money AIP had realized on their biggest previous success, Beach Party. By the end of September 1966, the company would announce an immediate slate of “protest” pictures dealing dramatically with realistic commentary on our society and times.